LOS ANGELES—“Gone are the days of industrial spaces being thought of as a necessary evil. Tenants' space is now thought of as a strategic weapon.” Those thoughts are from Adam Mullen, head of supply chain services at CBRE, who recently chatted with GlobeSt.com on how industrial tenants are using space and changes that are occurring as a result of e-commerce.
According to Mullen, Wall Street has its eye on how companies leverage their supply chain, and most companies nowadays, he says, have at least thought about transforming their supply chain to keep up. “The desire to make it easy for consumers, whether eCommerce or Omni-channel or Industrial Supplies, has made things very complex on the back-end,” he says.
There is a laser focus on supply chain design nowadays, he notes.
“Picking the right locations, doing the right things and with the right capacity is key,” he says, adding that we can expect that focus to continue especially as companies position for the future.
But industrial use has come a long way, he explains, but it is still behind compared to the other tenants of a company's supply chain. Things like inventory decisions, process, automation, communication with consumers all move at the speed of light, he says, but “industrial space could be argued as the most important part of the supply chain—home base—and we have to apply the same thinking in our industry and innovate.”
He stresses the importance in finding ways to increase the speed to market for space and the flexibility of that space adding that clear heights, parking, labor ramp-up/down etc. will remain part of the conversation. “That is a default now.”
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com and GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
